BREAKING — RUNOFF IS CONFIRMED FOR AFGHAN ELECTION, reports The BBC: “The Afghan election will proceed to a runoff between the two top candidates after final results showed nobody polled more than 50 percent of the vote.

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“Abdullah Abdullah took 45 percent of the vote in the first round and his main opponent Ashraf Ghani polled 31.6 percent. Six other candidates were eliminated.” http://bbc.in/1v8f6mB

The second round of voting is scheduled for June 14.

OBAMA ASSIGNS NABORS TO HELP CLEAN UP VA MESS, reports AP’s Julie Pace: “President Barack Obama is dispatching one of his closest White House advisers to oversee a review of the beleaguered Veterans Affairs Department as the agency grapples with allegations of treatment delays and preventable deaths at a Phoenix veterans hospital.

“White House deputy chief of staff Rob Nabors will be temporarily assigned to the VA to work on a review focused on policies for patient safety rules and the scheduling of patient appointments, officials said Wednesday.” http://abcn.ws/1jh9sLe

SHINSEKI STILL IN THE HOT SEAT TODAY: VA Secretary Eric Shinseki appears before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee this morning in a hearing about the growing controversy over veterans care across the country. Story after story has been coming out about VA officials taking steps to conceal how long veterans truly have to wait to see a doctor. In the case of a clinic in Phoenix, as many as 40 people may have died while waiting to see someone. So far, just over 20 lawmakers have called for Shinseki’s resignation, all of them Republicans.

— BUT WE MIGHT NOT GET MANY ANSWERS TODAY, reports The New York Times’ Richard A. Oppel Jr.: Shinseki’s prepared testimony, “suggests that he may not respond in any detail to questions about what happened at the department’s Phoenix medical center — where reports of secret waiting lists first emerged — saying that the department’s inspector general ‘has advised V.A. against providing information that could potentially compromise’ the office’s inquiry.” http://nyti.ms/QLRW51

Meanwhile, the advocacy group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and the Project On Government Oversight are announcing today a joint effort to protect whistleblowers who have information about wrongdoing within the VA.

As for last night’s news about Nabors, IAVA chief policy officer Tom Tarantino said, “This is a good first step, but we and our vets expect more.”

FORGET DENYING OR DESTROYING NETWORKS, WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE ENEMY CAN TINKER WITH YOUR DATA? POLITICO’s Philip Ewing reports from yesterday’s conference at the Atlantic Council where Arati Prabhakar, director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, said, “We’re investing in [a] new breed of cybersecurity technology so that we can actually trust the information we have to rely on.” http://politico.pro/1styLcG

“Both she and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey warned audiences … on Wednesday that corrupted data could be more dangerous than cyberattacks that destroy or deny military networks. Commanders have ways to work around the loss of a system, they said, but it would be much more difficult for them to operate with electronic tools they could no longer trust.”

SENATE A-10 ADVOCATES STILL LOOKING FOR THE RIGHT $635 MILLION OFFSET: New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte said yesterday she’s working with Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin to include the A-10 in the Senate defense authorization bill. But the Michigan Democrat threw a wrench in the plans by dismissing the House Armed Service Committee’s use of Overseas Contingency Operations war funds to pay for the plane.

“It was an overwhelming vote in the House to say, ‘Preserve the A-10,’” Ayotte said at a Capitol Hill press conference. “The chairman is committed to doing that in this year’s defense authorization bill, and we are working with him to come up with a pay-for [that] does not use OCO and stays within the current budget caps.”

STATE PUBLISHES FINAL EXPORT RULE FOR SATELLITES AND SPACE SYSTEMS: “The new rules governing [U.S. Munitions List] Category XV represent a significant achievement of the President’s Export Control Reform Initiative,” Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Puneet Talwar told Morning D. “In 2013, the Department of State processed space-related export licenses worth over $7 billion; we estimate that 60% of these licenses, by volume, will be under the regulatory authority of the Department of Commerce on an annual basis as a result of this rule change.”

The new export regulations will “enhance our competitiveness in global markets, reduce unnecessary friction on overseas sales of commercial space and satellite products and services, and focus our strictest controls where they belong — on our most sensitive military items,” he said.

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AIRBUS … IT’S AS AMERICAN AS YOUR TOYOTA COROLLA … “The new U.S.-based chief executive of Airbus is trying to make the company feel as American as familiar brands Volkswagen and Toyota,” reports POLITICO’s Leigh Munsil.

“None of those companies are headquartered in the United States. But Allan McArtor, the new head of the U.S. unit of Airbus Group, said his company is increasingly focused on making itself a similarly known and valued entity here, by changing its name, putting down roots with a $600 million assembly line in Alabama and seeking acquisitions. And despite a shrinking Pentagon budget, Airbus will be competing for more Defense Department contracts, he promised.” http://politico.pro/T3vruB

FOR WORK, GLOBAL POWER, SMART BUDGET DECISIONS AND READINESS ARE KEY: “We are and will remain a global power whose position in the world is underpinned by our ability to project global influence in concert with other elements of national power and our allies and partners overseas,” new Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work said in a letter to all DoD staff yesterday. http://1.usa.gov/QJKPtQ

Also on his to-do list: improving “the requirements and acquisition process to better manage the cost-effectiveness and ultimately maintain the dominance of our weapon systems,” he said.

In his opening letter, Work also emphasized the need to balance near-term readiness with preparing for future threats and challenges.

The new deputy is also new to Twitter. You can follow him at @DepSecDefWork.

“Dempsey was asked in an appearance at the Atlantic Council about the Quadrennial Defense Review, which skeptics including House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) have rejected as a simple budget justification document, not a long-term strategy.

“Dempsey said it would be foolish to prepare a strategy that ignored the budget restrictions that Congress itself has put in place.” http://politico.pro/T3qSjI

NEW LEGISLATION AIMS TO EMPOWER PENTAGON AUDITORS, reports POLITICO’s Austin Wright: Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) “plans to push legislation next week to allow the Defense Contract Audit Agency to speak directly to contractor employees — an authority the agency contends it already has but wants spelled out in law after facing resistance from companies.” http://politico.pro/1jtck1I

‘SEPTUAGENARIAN WAR HORSE’ TAKES OFF FOR FRANCE TODAY: “The plane — a twin-engine, propeller-driven C-47 military transport — will cross the famously frigid North Atlantic for the 70th anniversary of the storming of Normandy during World War II, when the Whiskey 7 was a lead plane in a Britain-based group that dropped paratroopers over coastal France. This time around, its crew will navigate a 3,600-mile-long — and presumably flak-free — route, making refueling stops in Maine, Labrador, Greenland, Iceland and Scotland before buzzing the skies over Omaha Beach in early June,” reports The New York Times’ Jesse McKinley. http://nyti.ms/1k4cwcg

It’s quite a trip for the plane. The farthest it’s flown recently is to Wisconsin for an airshow. Godspeed!

SPEED READ

— Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) says he backs bipartisan efforts to reexamine the Authorization of Use of Military Force. Buzzfeed: http://bzfd.it/1jhjmfM

— Senate Minority Whip Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) criticized the Obama administration’s foreign policy for, as he sees it, presenting only two options to the public: Put U.S. boots on the ground or do nothing substantial. Defense News: http://goo.gl/O3gqNr

— The day after meeting with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, Saudi Prince Salman bin Sultan was removed from his post as deputy defense minister. The Wall Street Journal: http://on.wsj.com/1jKOJif

— The RQ-170 drone Iran says it reverse-engineered from one that crashed inside the country in 2011 is a fake, according to experts. Fox News: http://fxn.ws/1jhXRLT

— Israel’s David Sling missile defense system is likely going to lose a $13 billion deal to provide a missile defense shield for Poland due to heavy U.S. lobbying for two rival systems: MEADS and the Patriot system. Reuters: http://nyti.ms/1nMSMgE

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Authors:

About The Author

Kate Brannen is a defense reporter for POLITICO Pro.

Before coming to POLITICO, Brannen covered congress for Defense News, providing regular coverage of the budget debate on Capitol Hill and its implications for national security. Previously, she spent three years covering the U.S. Army — first as a reporter for InsideDefense.com, then as the land warfare correspondent for Defense News.

Brannen graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, with a bachelor's degree in history. She has received graduate degrees from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and School of International and Public Affairs.